Worthington Biochemical -- Regenerative Medicine

Working with primary cells for regenrative medicine applications such as stem cells or organ transplantation?

The increased awareness and regulatory concerns arising from the spread of prion-based Bovine Spongiform Encephalopthy (BSE), other Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopthies (TSE) such as scrapie and variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD) and mammalian viruses have led to the development of new, non-animal sourced enzymes to minimize and/or eliminate these animal-borne risks.

 Worthington produces hundreds of different enzymes including several key Animal Origin Free (AOF) nucleases including DNase and RNase T1, proteases and collagenase for biopharmaceutical, biomedical and bio-processing applications including cosmetic collagen purification, isolation of primary and stem cells for autologous transplantation, artificial organ research and the processing of vaccine components.  Although these enzymes are not used as active pharmaceutical ingredients, it is imperative that they be devoid of any animal based components to prevent potential contamination from mammalian pathogens such as BSE/TSE prions and contaminating viruses.

 AOF enzymes can be purified from various plant, fungal, bacterial and other native or recombinant microbial sources using raw materials, media components, chemicals, buffers and dedicated equipment free of animal-sourced materials. These raw materials require documented supplier qualification and certification as to their primary source and origin. In addition, documented process and equipment controls are also required to assure quality and AOF production status from raw material receipt through packaging and final release testing.

 For primary cell isolation applications the Worthington Tissue Dissociation Guideprovides a general introduction to the theory and techniques involved in primary cell isolation as well as a set of annotated references organized by tissue type. Worthington also offers the following use-tested kits: 

 

If your application requires collagenase, we encourage you to take advantage of our FREE Collagenase Sampling Program to pre-test the particular lot of enzyme you are planning to use in your experiment. As the world's leading manufacturer of collagenase, Worthington is able to offer the greatest number of different lots at any given time and recommend specific lots for an application.

Still need more help getting started? Take a look at our Online Tissue Dissociation FAQ. If you don't see the answer you're looking for, we welcome you to post a new question. Or, if you need an even quicker response, please call Technical Support at 1-732-942-1660 or 1-800-445-9603 (U.S. and Canada.) We welcome your questions and comments!

Worthington will be exhibiting at the BioProcessing International Conference in Raleigh, NC (10/13-15/2009) and the 2009 American Cell Biology (ASCB) Meeting (Dec. 6-9, 2009), in San Digo, CA. We welcome you to stop by our booth.